CrossFit offers a high-intensity workout

Official Fitness owner Ethan Townsend holds a barbell aloft as coach Judy Severn looks on Thursday afternoon Feb., 28, 2019 at their facility located at 1297 Main Street #1 in Windsor. (Michael Brian/mbrian@greeleytribune.com)WindsorCrossfit-GDT-022819-1

Looking for an exercise outside the box? Something a little less
traditional, easier on the body, and arguably more effective? CrossFit may be
an answer.

CrossFit gyms have been sweeping the nation as a method of exercise and
physical wellness that is a step aside from the traditional weights and
machines often found in a neighborhood gym or recreational center. The CrossFit
gym, like the Official Fitness gym in Windsor, is indicative of its philosophy.
Instead of being crammed with weight machines, treadmills, and benches, a
CrossFit gym likely has a lot of open space.

“We feel like you can do a heck of a lot more with a bar and a few weights than you can with any type of chest-press or leg-press machine,” said Ethan Townsend, founder of Windsor’s Official Fitness.

Townsend got into the CrossFit scene just four years ago and like many who
dip their toe in, he quickly took a plunge. He’d spent years hitting the gym
with heavy weights and competing as an amateur in Strongman competitions. One
day his knee buckled under a heavy-weight squat and it “broke like a pack of
crackers” Townsend remembered. He said it felt like someone had taken an ice
pick to the back of his knee.

After trying almost everything to repair the damage from physical therapy to
hope, nothing was helping. One day a friend invited him to a CrossFit class and
his knee didn’t hurt. After a while, he was able to squat the same weight and
with no pain. Townsend was doing what he always knew he should be doing, but
never did: less weight, more volume and with a focus on stretching and
mobility.

Before his injury, Townsend would bench press or squat rep for 15 to 20
seconds with a two-minute rest in between, incrementally making his way up to
max weight.

Sam Burke, left, and teammate Greg Barbosa, right, both from Fort Collins, compete in the Karen WOD (workout of the day), a benchmark workout in CrossFit, during the 2nd Annual Windsor Warrior Saturday Feb., 2, 2019 at Official Fitness Windsor on Main Street. (Michael Brian/mbrian@greeleytribune.com)WindsorCrossfit-GDT-020219-5

CrossFit is much different. First, he’ll stretch. Then he will work on the
movement he wants to perform like a squat but maybe doing 10 squats
halfway, 10 three-quarters of the way, 10 all the way, and then hold that
position for 30 seconds or a couple of minutes. After that, he may start using
weights.

Workouts can be as short as a couple of minutes or longer than an hour. One
infamous CrossFit workout is called Fran. It consists of doing 21 thrusters, or
full-body squats into an overhead press, 21 pull-ups followed by 15 of both of
those and then nine. A select few can get it done in under two minutes.

“My best time was like 3:15, and I wanted to puke afterward,” Townsend said.

It can also be a rehabilitative experience. Judith Severn is a judge for
Official Fitness’s annual Windsor Warrior competition, which had its second
event in February, a CrossFit trainer, and an Olympic lifting instructor.

She wants to make sure people know that while CrossFit can be very
competitive, it’s also got a place for those just looking to incorporate it
into their health and wellness routines and improve their overall livelihood.
It pairs nicely other exercise activities like yoga and pilates and can be used
to recover from an injury, as Townsend found.

Some of the exercises incorporate everyday movements. For example, getting
up and down from a chair is similar to a squat. Judith relates picking up a
toddler to performing a deadlift and pulling something off of a shelf to an
overhead press.

And each person is different. Severn may instruct one client to do a squat
differently than another because it better suits their body.

“There’s a distinction between the two … there’s a distinction of how you
would approach things. But just knowing that it is available, that it’s
customizable, it works great in conjunction with other things as well,” said
Severn.

Other athletes say CrossFit can be incredibly challenging to start. Alex
Aistrope wanted to climb some of Colorado’s fourteeners but was in “struggle
bus city” as he puts it. A friend of his brought him to a Crossfit session
about two and a half years ago and he too was hooked. The year before he
couldn’t do a single pull-up, even though heavyweights were his preference, and
climbed only two fourteeners.

“I felt the difference right away,” said Aistrope.

He dropped a good amount of body fat, quick. In his first year, he climbed
four fourteeners and then 10 the following year. Now he does one or two
workouts a day, sometimes three or four and can do 100 pull-ups. Some of his
favorite movements are gymnastics type movements like ring muscle-ups and chest
bar pull-ups.

“I never thought I’d be able to do 100 pull-ups in a day,” continued
Aistrope.

He said he was immediately humbled when he started off with CrossFit two
years ago — the short, yet high-intensity workouts with a lot of reps were
unlike anything he’d ever done before.